Happy Birthday Jeff - All Is Well

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Written by Henry Scott Holland in 1847.

Death is nothing at all.

It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.

Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I
and you are you
and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched
unchanged.

Whatever we were to each other
that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way
which you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed
at the little jokes
we enjoyed together.

Play.
Smile.
Think of me.
Pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word
that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort
without the ghost of a shadow upon it.

Life means all that it ever meant.
It's the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken
continuity.

What is this death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you
for an interval
somewhere very near
just around the corner.

All is well.

Happy Birthday, brother.

I love you.

I miss you.

All is well here too.

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